We relate to the ministry of Jesus in one light, in our limited attention, that He is a Saviour, yet this verse in 1 John 3:8 brings a different light within our theme, concerning where Mercy is in the context of wrath, and how Mercy becomes manifest in the process where we see wrath and its seeds within this fallen creation.

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Two key words in this verse: 1) Purpose 2) Manifested, where we verify and fix our attention on Jesus’ purpose and the means by which He manifested we will then see the works of the devil destroyed. Wrath, or the reaping from the works of sin, occur when we have not fixed in our mind what purpose Jesus has in all time, in His first coming. In His Glorified and Ascended position. In eternity. Then once we have fixed the purpose we then must identify HOW Jesus has manifest,is manifesting, and how He will manifest. In this way it will be like a guided missile that destroys the agents of wrath working in our lives.

The Purposes of Jesus’ Manifestation

 Jesus in the Gospels for the major part moves in His Saviour Mission, toward the end, and after Pentecost He moves in His Glorified position, as King of His Holy Hill, Psalm 2. The prime example of the powerful exposition of this revelation is found in the preaching of Peter in Acts 2. There are many elements in the preaching of Peter that reveal fully the purpose of Jesus’ earthly mission and then Peter presents what the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit represented. He situates this Outpouring as a direct fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy in chapter 2. This Outpouring is not for just one generation but for every generation until the Day of the Lord.

Peter connects this wonderful presence and outpouring with Jesus Christ. This same Jesus that they had crucified…yet losing sight that this Jesus fulfilled the words of the prophets, yet they did not connect this prophetic purpose. Yet this act of betraying this Messiah in the way they did, was directly within prophetic scripture, yet despite this God raised Him up and exalted Him. Even David testifies of this position. So from this we can surmise that the purpose presented is that Jesus’ mission had a prophetic preparation, that those close to this dimension could discern, could recognise it with their senses when it manifested. There are phases in our lives, that we receive a promise but when it manifests in our midst in our eyes and ears we sometimes do have difficulty in recognising it. However very few did connect these, principally 2 people in Luke 2, Anna and Simeon, who were able to make this connection. Now although we are looking into the earthly ministry of Jesus, here, in the context of 1 John 3, we must apply this looking forward, because today we run into the same dangers as we see world events unfold, we do not connect prophetic Scripture with what we see with our senses, we will oppose what Jesus King and Lord is doing. We need to make the connection that: the purpose of the manifestation of Jesus in whatever generation starts out as prophetic, and in that dimension we must discern, prepare in prayer and contemplation for when it manifests in our senses we recognise and cooperate with it.

The other purpose beyond being prophetic as mentioned above is the purpose of continuity, covenant, Messianic Line, which runs throughout Scripture. In Hebrews 1 we see a distinction in the progression of how God speaks, first through His prophets, then ultimately through His Son, a more fuller Voice that speaks, now He speaks in our Hearts through His Spirit. With the purpose of continuity, covenant we see that more and more as we approach the end times, the unfolding of eternity we see a greater and fuller manifestation of Jesus’ destroying the devil’s works in terms of His Throne first being established in heaven, then in people’s hearts, through His Church and through this eternal cooperation we see the unfolding of a glorious eternity. Peter’s preach in Acts 2 speaks to this process…the first manifestation in the exaltation of Jesus is the sending of the Holy Spirit. This sending of gifts to men is the establishing of a habitation not made with hands, not made with earthly building blocks. So as we see this thread of continuity and covenant, we see accompanying it is the dysfunction and discord running alongside. The sons of Isaac run alongside the sons of Ishmael. A thread that runs throughout Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. So in this imagery we then can see wrath run alongside mercy. However we align our lives we determine which side we will fall. This habitation will one day be the New Jerusalem, glorious,victorious and eternal, triumphant over evil.

Jesus is manifested in the specific ways in Scripture

Using Hebrews 1:1 we can map out the manifestations of Jesus in Scripture, whose sole objective is to reverse the fall and establish an eternity where evil, grief, sadness, poverty, sickness do no longer have part in this eternal and restorative work. In the Old Testament Jesus appears to speak through Abraham, appealing to our faith, speaking through Moses to be freed from this work, speaking through David to establish a Kingdom without end. Then in the Gospels He is manifest plainly to redeem and teach us the way to the Kingdom. In Acts we see Jesus birth His Church, through His Spirit, writing His Laws in our intimate being. And when we get through the epistles we understand our Sonship, our privileges, and our conduct by the Spirit. Until we come to Revelation where we embrace His Heavenly ministry. Exalted, Glorified, to bring to fulfilment that which the Father ordained. And as we walk in Him the consistency of His plans and purposes will expel, break all that which brings contradiction, discord and destruction into our lives.

3 dimensions in which Jesus destroys the works of the devil

Jesus will destroy first the works of the devil before He destroys the Being called the devil. We need to make this distinction because one has to do this to understand what Jesus comes to do, and first the works he does against us are those in this time and in this dimension will be destroyed. We must recognise what works are destroyed.

Jesus came to destroy the work of deception in mankind, by being the personification of Truth. He once says: “You will hear the truth and the truth shall set you free”. The main weapon of the devil within the Church is bringing heresy and apostasy. One being sown within the ministry of the Church, and apostasy being the cooling of our love for Jesus.

Jesus also came to destroy division within the People of God. Right now I am writing a new book “12 Gates of New Jerusalem” I have ascertained how much these divisions in the Body of Christ has blinded us to marvellous truths. This division cuts from the Church the full flow of Jesus’ authority through the Body. Jesus’ authority is summed up in James in this light: “Submit unto God, resist the devil and he shall flee.” This shows us that before the devil can flee, in the Greek speaks of authority in this verse, “submit unto the kratos hand of God…” kratos, being the highest level of authority, means dominion. If we submit and unite under this kratos hand we see this flow through us, and the works of the devil are destroyed.

Jesus comes to destroy disease, which comes from dysfunctions, stresses, habits, environmental factors. This disease can affect the mind, being that Isaiah in chapter 26.3 says “he who stays his mind on you shall be steadfast” means a exhortation that any issue that affects our mind, from infirmity from the enemy, disease that affects, diverts from doing God’s will. Jesus came to break the power of infirmity, some of the occasions were a faith challenge, some being a question of forgiveness, some a question of demonic influences.

Concluding words

This message seems very theological but my heart at the moment is to fight against ignorance and errors, because there is so much ignorance about end times, so much ignorance of how God moves, ignorance because people are not studying the Word for themselves. This message is to open the understanding and to prepare us for this Jesus full of purpose to manifest for us, that we enter into an eternity full of glory and victory.

Shalom!